Haas Soars Above the Amazon

October 7, 2007 — dsart

Robert Haas, who used to be an investment banker, photographs for National Geographic, and in this astounding show “Eye of the Condor, aerial views of Latin America”, he does three things supremely well: he makes art of his subject matter; he makes technically spectacular photographs; and he makes us want to go to where he has been.
I am often not such a fan of aerial photography because I find too often people are so in love with the fact they have such a unique view they do very little interesting with the fact. In this case, Haas has managed to make incredible abstracts of very tangible and real objects.
In Salvador, Brazil, he makes of seaweed and sand an abstract in green and red along the Atlantic shoreline. In Curanilahue, Chile he photographs a water treatment pool with forms which in his appear like floating jellyfish.
There are some shots which appear staged-did he line up all those flamingos in formation to appear to form a giant bird? Were these part of some Yucatan flamingo cheerleader team?
This is an awe inspiring show- for everyone- it reveals an extraordinary part of our world; for the photography buff- it shows what can be created with a well-developed eye, and for any artist- it shows how to transform the natural into something transcendent.
The show is mainly at the Centennial museum with a number of photos at the Ruben Center both on the UTEP campus-David Sokolec